Baking Is Hard
by FickleArtist
Summary: It's Timmy's birthday, his friends are all in town and his girlfriend is their evil ex-babysitter. What could possibly go wrong?


There was an awkward silence as Timmy Turner put a blackened pan of cake on the stove top while his girlfriend took the batteries out of the smoke detector to stop the infuriating beeping. They opened the kitchen and living room windows along with the front door to let the smoke out. What a way to start a Saturday morning.

Without a word he observed the disaster that had once been their kitchen. Two other cake attempts were in the garbage, one burnt while the other just looked….off. Bowels, spoons, and pans were stacked high in the sink. Cake mix dotted the counters, some was on the fridge handle and door, a bit was splattered on the walls, and there was some on the redhead's face. A thick layer of flour covered the bar, a pile of it was on one end, and there were some measuring cups scattered in the mess. Something shiny was on the walls, possibly cooking spray. An overturned bottle of oil was lying open on the edge of a counter dripping onto the floor where a puddle was quickly growing. Blinds that had once been hanging in front of the kitchen window were missing, he suspected the dried egg underneath had something to do with it. And to top it all off the entire apartment smelled like burnt bread, smoke, and vanilla.

Despite the situation he quietly chuckled at the sight of his girlfriend. She'd gotten flour in her hair, turning it pink in some places. Her clothes were covered in baking ingredients, some of which she'd trailed into the living room, through the hall, and back to the closet that held their washer and dryer. Pink eyes refused to look up from the floor as a blush spread across her face. Arms crossed, she waited for the lecture that was surely coming her way about destroying the kitchen. After all this wasn't the first time she'd woke him up because she felt like cooking early in the morning and ended up burning something.

"So…?"

Since he didn't sound upset she looked up at him with a frown.

"I….was trying to bake you a birthday cake." So much for surprising him.

"You hate baking and cooking." And cleaning he added to himself.

"Well excuse me for trying to be nice."

"Since when are you nice?"

With that Vicky flipped him off before locking him outside their apartment in nothing but his boxers. It was times like these he hated himself for passing up the apartment on the ground floor. For nearly an hour he alternated between yelling while pounding on the door and calmly asking her to let him back in. One of their neighbors was sure to complain again about the racket but the landlord never got mad at them since the old pervert had a thing for Vicky. All it took was an apology in the same sickly sweet tone she used on her old babysitting clients, occasionally some flirting if he was really pissed about the complaints, and all was forgiven. However he wasn't in the mood to deal with the old man today so he ended up apologizing until she let him back in.

Only to shove some clothes into his arms and tell him to get out of the apartment until she told him he could come home.

"Vicky –"

"Out."

"Bu–"

"Get out of the fucking apartment."

Had his comment really pissed her off that much? Even for her that was weird. Not that she gave him much of a choice once he was dressed. He was once again forced out of their apartment with only his cell phone. When he tried to talk his way back in, she started blasting music to drown him out. Well so much for spending his birthday at home.

**Several hours later**

"DAMMIT!"

"Better luck next time dude."

Chuckling, Timmy high fived his blonde team mate. Chester whooped and pumped his fist into the air at the victory against the others. After receiving a phone call that his friend had been forced from his home, the blonde had quickly gotten the rest of the gang together to try to make the day better. What kind of best friend would he be if he left the brunette to wander around town alone on his birthday? Luckily the other three of their childhood gang had come into town the day before to celebrate, so the blonde dragged everyone to a paintball range for a few games. At first it had been Timmy, A.J., and Chester versus Sanjay and Elmer, that game was over in record time. Next they tried Chester, Sanjay, and Elmer as a team but the second A.J. had been taken out the blonde turned on his team mates. Finally the brunette and blonde were made a team while the other three tried to take them out. Two games later and the pair were given limited ammo for the final game to try to even the odds. But they'd still managed to beat the others; A.J. had been the last one standing and hadn't taken kindly to being hit from both the front and back.

"I believe we need more people if we wish to defeat them." Sanjay told his teammates as they climbed back into Chester's car.

"Y'all'd still lose." The blonde replied as he drove them back to his place.

"What happens when you guys only have each other to play against?" Elmer asked curiously.

"We normally find another group that'll let us join in." The brunette replied.

"That or its us against Vicky, chick is vicious and scary good. Dude, remember that time we got this group of like ten people to be a team with us and she took us all out?"

"Don't remind me, that wasn't a fun day."

A.J. looked horrified, "you guys let her shoot at you?!"

"Dude, its paintball, it's as close to equal footing with her as you can get."

"I suppose you do have a point."

"Okay, so what're we doing now? We've still got plenty of daylight left to burn, and its Timmy's twenty-first, that means we're going out drinkin' tonight!"

"Chester in case you've forgotten some of us are still underage."

"Don't be a buzz kill A.J., you can have some drinks before we go out."

"Hold up," the brunette interrupted whatever the genius of the group was about to say, "I'm not going out drinking tonight, I already have plans."

They'd arrived back at Chester's place. The blonde smiled knowingly at his friend, oh shit.

"Chester." He warned.

The smile turned into a smirk. "Dude."

"Don't."

"Duuude."

"Please don't."

"Staying in with your girl?"

"Chester!"

Before the blonde's last comment the others had been completely confused as to why Timmy was getting mad. Realization hit and being the awkward bunch of nerds they were, the trio in the back tried to ignore what was coming.

Taking his friend's keys, the brunette got out of the car to let himself into the house. Not that it stopped his best friend from jumping out of the car and loudly announcing for everyone within a five block radius to hear, "Dude, birthday sex!"

Several people passing by looked at the blonde in disgust at his sudden announcement. One couple quickly ushered their young child away as she innocently asked what that meant. Red from embarrassment Timmy quickly reached his friend's door only to be blocked by Chester's stoner roommate.

With a chuckle the roommate held up his hands when he noticed Timmy was embarassed, "I ain't judging ya'll man. 'Bout time you two came out of the closet, just give me a heads up anytime ya'll get busy so I don't walk in on anythin'." Ignoring the bewildered look from the brunette, Chester's roommate left, congratulating the blonde on finally getting his best friend to become his boyfriend.

Once the other's were inside A.J., who had a knack for not letting awkward moments pass by, asked why Chester's roommate seemed to think he and Timmy had any sort of romantic feelings. A topic Sanjay and Elmer would prefer to have let die. However the answer was simple, the guy was a hardcore yaoi fan whose absolute favorite stories have the two characters start off as childhood best friends. That and his first time meeting the brunette had been when the friends were wrestling over the TV remote yelling at each other. The guy put two and two together and decided the pair simply hadn't accepted their feelings for one another. It was weird, amusing at times, but weird.

Not wanting to continue learning about the oddity that was Chester's roommate, Sanjay suggested they go ahead and let Timmy open his gifts. There would have been cake but a certain someone insisted on making it and failed miserably, his friends were keeping that part to themselves. He didn't seem to mind though. His friends gifts were typical, a book, some games, and they'd all pitched in to get him a new (pink) paint ball gun.

The next couple of hours the group hung out, played video games, and had some drinks. Okay so they had a lot of drinks. Empty liquor bottles sat on the counter, beer cans littered the living room floor, and they were now trying to play a two person battle game while intoxicated. Well, not A.J., the young genius was passed out in the bathroom hugging the toilet. Lucky him because his friends were being extremely loud, so loud they didn't hear someone banging on the front door. And it wasn't until Sanjay lost to Timmy that they finally heard it. Thinking it was one of his neighbors ,Chester went to answer the door, only to find his best friend's fiery haired girlfriend glaring down at him.

Unfazed, he smiled at her, "Well hey Queen Bitch! What's up?"

"Twerp isn't answering his phone."

"Well that's 'cause we're having a party."

Rolling her eyes the older woman pushed past him and into the apartment. Her boyfriend noticed her and smiled while the other two were completely oblivious to her presence.

"You didn't pick up."

"Sorry." Despite the lack of focus in his gaze he was sincere in his apology.

"Whatever." Taking the controller from the brunette and heading it to Elmer, she placed her hands on her hips. "Plan on coming home or crashing here?"

Suddenly Chester started laughing, mumbling incoherent words to himself.

"What?"

"Nothin' dude."

Vicky snapped her fingers in front of her boyfriend's face. "I asked you a question."

"Home."

More laughter from the blonde, "dude."

"Fuck no!" He jumped up to put his hand over his friend's mouth to shut him up.

"You two are idiots." The redhead stated before dragging Timmy out the door.

Not long after they arrived back at their apartment with hardly any problems except for the brunette tripping at the top of the stairs and falling on his face. That caused his girlfriend to have to half carry him into their apartment. Annoyed she left him on the couch to get something from the kitchen.

"Thanks for coming to get me."

"Yeah, yeah."

" 'S hard to be nice to you when you act like a bitch you know that?"

Sitting on the coffee table she handed him a glass of water and smirked. "You get mouthy when you drink ya little brat."

" 'S true."

"Maybe I'll work on it."

"Liar."

"And you love me anyway." She flicked his forehead and went back to the kitchen. "Drink."

He obeyed the command, downing half the glass before the lights went out. There's was a faint click and after a moment his eyes focused on the flame of a candle on a deformed cupcake in his girlfriend's hands. Again she sat on the coffee table, holding the cupcake between them.

"Happy Birthday Twerp." In the faint glow from the candle he saw her smile, not a mischievous smile or a smug smile, a real smile.

"Did you make that?"

She quickly started turning red, "I tried you asshole! Blow the fucking candle out."

"Hold on I have to think of a wish…Okay got it."

The flame was blown out and she started to ask what he wished for, but a pair of lips cut her off. One of his hands took the cupcake from her while the other cupped her face. His lips moved against her's gently, thumb brushing her cheek as he pulled back to look at her. "Thank you."

"For what?"

He took her hands in his, interlacing their fingers, brought one of her hands up to press his lips to it, and repeated the process with the other. "Trying."

"Still not sold on the whole being affectionate thing."

"You love it."

As much as she wanted to deny that, she couldn't. Tenderness was pretty rare in their relationship because Vicky was, well Vicky. More of an all-or-nothing kind of person, she'd pushed him away those first few times he tried to be affectionate. It wasn't something she was familiar with so she avoided it but sometimes he couldn't help it, especially when he was in the process of waking up. One day he'd convinced her to suck it up for a moment and she'd slowly grown to secretly like it. The warm feeling that spread through her system, the sensation of butterflies in her stomach, it was nice. Something she'd never say aloud.

"Nope."

"Liar." He pulled her hands to his shoulders, "c'mere."

Rolling her eyes, Vicky moved so she was straddling him. Arms wrapped around her, pulling her close, and he leaned against her shoulder. For a few minutes they stayed like that, her arms loosely around his neck as he cuddled her. Thinking he'd fallen asleep she began to pull back, only to feel him tighten his hold on her.

"Where're you going?"

"Bed."

"And you were gonna leave me here?"

"Wouldn't be the first time you slept on the couch."

"Rather sleep with you."

"Is that an offer?" She smirked.

"A request."

She kissed him, trying to keep it slow and gentle, only to be disappointed when he pulled back.

"Hey Vicky?"

"What?" Her patience was wearing thin.

"Do I have to eat that cupcake?"

He was smacked on the head, shoved into the back of the couch, and heard his ticked off girlfriend slam the bedroom door. "Enjoy the couch asshole."


End file.
